


Emissary

by flight815kitsune



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Ambiguous Relationships, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Potential Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-29
Updated: 2013-07-29
Packaged: 2017-12-21 16:53:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 999
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/902642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flight815kitsune/pseuds/flight815kitsune
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They keep us connected to humanity</p>
            </blockquote>





	Emissary

It had been four days.

Four days, and Derek was still in the woods. He hadn't come back for anything- no food, no water, not even to charge his phone.

The other wolves didn't seem to have any problem with this. They wanted to let him come back at his own pace. To leave him alone.

Stiles had agreed, at first. But when the fourth day rolled around and there was no sign of him, he decided it was time to bring him back. He went into the woods. Knowing the area and having some idea about how wolves think, he only took five hours to find the hidden spot the Hales had once mentioned.

 

The stairs creaked as he made his way down. “I have ventured many hours from the land of the living to fetch your furry ass.”

There was a rumbled' “Go away” in the darkness.

“Yeah, that's not gonna happen.” He made his way down into the darkness. Everything was dusty and covered in cobwebs. It smelled old, in the way basements and attics sometimes do. An indescribable scent of something abandoned and left to rot.

 

After his eyes adjusted to the limited light, he could make out Derek. He was sitting on the floor with his arms on his knees. He was hunched over with his head bowed and eyes closed. He looked...defeated.

Broken.

 

As he had grown up, because of life and being the kid of a cop, Stiles had seen people break.

He had seen the violent breaks. When his dad had told a mother that her son had died in a car accident, she had broken like a stick in the woods. Just a snap and she was in pieces. She had fallen to her knees while a cry had been torn from her throat. That sound was agony in its purest form, heartache and hopelessness condensed into a something more howl than scream.

 

He had seen other people break down differently. The kind of people who are like those smooth pieces of glass you can find on the beach. They've been worn down for so long you can't tell what they were originally. There was an officer that had retired from the force who was like that. Where the work had just worn him into something completely different.

 

His mom had been like a light bulb. They didn't see her break, but it didn't change the fact that the light was gone.

 

His dad had worn down like clothing. Like a sweater that unravels or socks that have a hole worn into them. If you caught him losing it, you could work to repair it. Mend the holes and keep the yarn from undoing itself. But he wasn't the same as he was originally, and you had no idea how long the fixes would hold until there was nothing left.

 

Himself? He was like a teddy bear that a dog had gotten a hold of. Just one major event, and he was in pieces. White fluff and fur everywhere. But the pieces had been put together mostly for a stupid kid named Scott who still needed him. There were still moments when he couldn't breathe, when the stuffing wasn't quite right or a button eye was loose, but for the most part, you couldn't tell he had ever been broken as badly as he was.

 

He had originally thought that Derek was impervious to damage. That he was like diamond or something.

Then he made him think of some of the wood in the Hale house. Rough on the outside, darker than it was originally, but overall in pretty good shape.

Then, after seeing what Peter had warped into, he had the thought that maybe Derek was like him. Like a chunk of metal ruined by the heat. That didn't fit either.

 

Derek was like a car. Beaten down and repaired in so many places. Accident after accident. The check engine light was stuck on and you didn't know why nothing ever showed up when you got it checked. Where the seats don't match anymore, where one of the doors is a slightly different color. Where the window in the back doesn't roll down anymore, where the antenna was snapped off long ago and there are dents and scratches that you only saw when you got closer. One of those cars that looked okay unless you knew it's story and then you didn't know how the _hell_ it kept running.

 

And Stiles was there to give him a jump.

 

He sat beside him on the floor. “You've been out here too long.”

He was greeted with silence.

“You don't have to talk, but I'm going to talk _to_ you or _at_ you and I don't really care which.”

“Why are you here?”

“I don't trust Peter and he told me some stuff. I don't know what to believe, but I know you're not a bad guy. There are a lot of shades of grey here, and yours is way lighter than his. That said, there is some supernatural stuff going down and you're the go-to guy. More people are getting dragged into this. It isn't just a few 'animal attacks' anymore. We're talking dark magic and druids and an alpha pack. Innocent people are dying.”

“And it's my fault.”

“No. There were probably things along the way that could have been handled better, but all of this? Not your fault. ”

Derek glanced up at him. “I can't do this alone.”

“Dude, no one's asking you to. You got us. You're... stuck with us, really.” He stood up and offered a hand. “Now come on, I would like to get home at some point and you are the one with night vision.”

 

He didn't need his help up, but Derek took it anyway.

When he let go, he ran his fingers through his hair, brushed the dust off his jeans and the two of them went back to the world.  

**Author's Note:**

> I do have a tumblr, if any of y'all wanna ask me stuff or send me anon hates or look at pretty gifsets or encourage me to write more often or whatever. it's a horrible multifandom mess, but it's mine. So...yeah.  
> flight815kitsune.tumblr.com


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